A smarter approach to Managed Review

What is Managed Review?

Despite all the advances in eDiscovery technology, there are times when technology alone can’t do the job – you need people to manually review and analyze documents to identify those that are relevant to the legal matter at hand. That’s the process of managed review – also known as document review, attorney review, discovery review or managed document review.

By whatever name you know it, managed review is often addressed with a “throw bodies at the problem” approach. At many firms, managed review means gathering up young associates and paralegals into a workroom to review documents. Often, this requires hiring contract attorneys to complete the process on time. This means that attorneys have the further burden of managing the staff and designing the review process. More often than not, this approach is costly, time-consuming and frustrating.

Outsourcing managed review, therefore, has become a common option, saving both time and money. However, you can’t outsource the responsibility of ensuring that your managed review provider gives you the results you can rely on to support and defend your client.

What to look for?

When selecting a managed review provider, it’s wise to think about a few key factors. Document review can comprise as much as 70% of your litigation spend, so finding a managed review team who will meet your deadlines while saving you money is imperative. You also need a team who can guarantee a defensible process, ensuring that your productions are both correct and complete. After all, a faster, less expensive discovery process means little if the results aren’t defensible.

Precision Managed Review

Precision Managed Review marries our extensive experience in document review with deep expertise in information culling and analytics technologies and statistics-based quality control to create a smart, repeatable, efficient and defensible document review solution. Our Managed Review practice leverages the expertise found across our entire company, including our expert litigators, forensics examiners, IT specialists and other software development professionals who understand even the most complex of cases and the most complex data.

At Precision Discovery, we know it’s never too early to get involved in the managed review process. Just like sky diving, with document review the final result depends entirely on the quality of the prep work. We actively assist with early case needs such as intelligent workflow planning, search term assistance, database culling and more. We’d rather impress you up front with our efficiency than surprise you at the end with a high number of review hours.

From there, we assemble a review team and create a project management plan to ensure that all eDiscovery is complete by the agreed upon deadlines. Our goal is always to ensure that you are prepared for your briefs, hearings and trial. Our proactive approach and strategic planning help to provide you with the information you need earlier in the process.

Staffing a Project

We use a pyramid approach to staffing our managed reviews, organizing into small teams lead by highly seasoned attorneys, and coordinated by our trusted Managed Review Consultants. We place attorneys on specific teams based on their skills to maximize knowledge and expertise within each group, while balancing budget and schedule.

We scale up the review staff only as needed, and scale back down based on the needs of the client and the case. We know that using smaller, more knowledgeable teams will produce more efficient, consistent and accurate results. Compared to flat management structure where reviewers are added to one large team, our approach provides greater consistency, accuracy and scalability. When the demands of a case grow in size or complexity, we grow quickly with the case.

Our managed review process is designed to be repeatable, transparent and cost effective. Our experienced team of attorney consultants is here to guide you through the process of document review so that your litigation team can focus on substantive legal arguments while maintaining peace of mind about the review.

Continually reassess the process

We also continually assess our processes and the applicability of technology throughout the entire review because as the case and review progress, counsel’s theory and understanding of the case may evolve. Our proactive approach allows us to adapt to these changes along with counsel and provide the appropriate feedback. We find that our results are markedly improved when we continually re-evaluate our approach during the case. This helps ensure that our clients get the best results in the most efficient way possible.

Provide a defensible process

When it comes to results, you don’t just have to take our word for it. We use statistical sampling in all our reviews to validate our results. We apply similar sampling workflows used in TAR reviews to our managed document review process. This allows us to work closely with litigation counsel to ensure that our coding is accurate. This one step provides transparency, defensibility and peace of mind to our clients in a process that is usually seen as opaque.

Leverage expertise across the EDRM

While expert managed review is important, reliability across all phases of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) is critical. A weakness in any phase of the process can cascade into greater problems later. In addition to our seasoned review attorneys and Managed Review Consultants, your Precision Discovery team also includes experienced project management specialists. These specialists are technologists and litigators who can help craft a plan that streamlines the entire eDiscovery process and increases the efficiency, accuracy and reliability of the review.

As a litigator, it’s important to ask whether your current team can truly handle the nuances and complexities of electronic discovery. From collection and preservation, forensic analysis, data processing and hosting, to review and production, do you have the experts on hand to capture, review and produce relevant data? We have the experts on staff to help you streamline your eDiscovery and managed review processes. Contact us for more information about how we can help you.

Jacy Schoen, Managing Director, Managed Review Services

Jacy Schoen is the Managing Director for the Managed Review Consulting group at Precision Discovery. She enjoys creative problem solving and challenging the attorneys who work for her teams. Jacy is inspired by the ever evolving eDiscovery industry and how to combine tried-and-true best practices with the latest accepted technology and workflow practices. She enjoys challenging her teams to raise their game and spends her downtime tending to the Instagram feed of her adorable Schnorkie puppies.

Kinny Chan (@kinnychan) is the lead eDiscovery Consultant for Precision Discovery. He enjoys taking complex challenges and explaining them in simple and understandable terms. He is inspired by the intersection between technology, business and the law.